Last January, during a PEN International delegation visit to Mexico City, when a panel of the country’s officials started stating misleading facts about violence against journalists, they had to contend with Renu Mandhane.
The director of the International Human Rights Program (IHRP) at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law proved her tough but fair reputation and her commitment to journalists’ rights on the spot. “They were spouting off these [claims] like, ‘Oh, we’ve charged 55 people [for committing violence against journalists],’” recalls Mandhane. “And my first question was, ‘Okay, well, how many are proceeding in court?’ ‘Five.’ ‘Okay, well how many of those five have had any convictions?’ ‘Zero.’ So, it was this cool role to play, to make sure they weren’t playing a bit of spin-doctoring on us.”
“She’s fantastic,” says renowned author and PEN International President John Ralston Saul, who had invited Mandhane on the trip. “If you’re going to do a delegation to a place where they’re cutting the heads off of writers, she’s the person to have along.”
While Mandhane describes her path to directing the IHRP as “zigzagging,” in truth her passion for social justice issues and her diligence when it comes to fairness and the law has characterized her career dating back to her time in law school. While taking her law degree at the University of Toronto, she did pro bono work for women’s advocacy organizations. Then she got interested in human rights law under the tutelage of some of the field’s leading academics while pursuing an LL.M. at New York University.
After completing her master’s, Mandhane returned to Toronto, where she worked for almost four years as a criminal defence lawyer for Scott & Oleskiw, mainly representing women. She then took an administrative position at the office of the dean of U of T’s law school. “I realized that, really, my heart was more in the policy and academic side.”
She started her current job in 2010, and finds the position marries her passions for real-world justice and academia, as it includes a combination of classroom teaching and supervision of student projects for NGO partners. The job not only suits Mandhane’s professional skills, but her personal goals. Now the mother of a toddler, she’s grateful for the position’s relatively moderate pace. “As far as law jobs go, it’s a pretty manageable job in terms of juggling family and career,” she says. “To my non-lawyer friends, I think they think I work a lot. But when I compare myself to my friends in practice, I think I have a more flexible job.”
In fact, it’s flexible enough to have allowed her — husband and son in tow — to follow one of her favourite bands, Pearl Jam, for five shows across Canada last September. “Afterwards we realized, ‘Wow, the life of a rock star groupie is really hard.’”
Meanwhile, Mandhane’s work with the IHRP is showing results. One of the PEN delegation’s key objectives was to convince the Mexican Senate to reform the country’s constitution to make attacks on freedom of expression a federal crime. In March, the delegates learned that this legislation had been passed. “I really do think it was because of the international pressure that the PEN visit generated,” Mandhane says.
Saul takes it further and says Mandhane was essential. “She will do whatever needs to be done to make sure things go right. She’s what they used to call a ‘real trooper.’”
The Lowdown: Renu Mandhane
Year of call: 2002
If I wasn’t a lawyer, I would be a…Journalist
Greatest extravagance: A recent home renovation
Favourite thing to do in leisure time: Drink a glass of red wine with friends
Pet peeve: People who are still complaining about their job 10 years later
Favourite legal character: We don’t have cable!
Photography by Markian Lozowchuk